Rochdale grooming gang got £1MILLION in legal aid to fight chilling child sex abuse crimes – and now want more to stop them being deported
MEMBERS of the Rochdale grooming gang got more than £1million in legal aid before they were jailed and have been granted more funding to fight deportation.
Taxpayers paid £1,009,645 to help the gang members, who preyed on girls as young as 13, unsuccessfully defend the charges.
Now more money will go their way to fight attempts to send them back to Pakistan as they use Article 8 - which safeguards the right to family life - of the European Convention on Human Rights to argue they should remain in the UK.
Figures given to under the Freedom of Information Act show Shabir Ahmed, the ringleader, was given £249,707, Abdul Rauf £282,370, Adil Khan £282,289 and Abdul Aziz £195,277.
Others who have tried and failed to get legal aid to fight their court battles include Chris Gard and Connie Yates, who had attempted to get their desperately ill son to the US for experimental treatment, and victims of the IRA Hyde Park bomb attack.
The Court of Appeal previously granted permission for the four men to contest their deportation to Pakistan.
A Home Office spokesman has said: “All four men have been granted permission to appeal at the Court of Appeal and it would be inappropriate to comment further on ongoing legal proceedings.”
Three times married Ahmed, who acquired British citizenship by naturalisation, has previously ranted against then Home Secretary, now Prime Minister Theresa May, saying: "She says all her trouble is coming from Muslims, yet she's the biggest trouble causer in the world."
Four of the men had their citizenship appeals knocked back earlier this year, having cited human rights laws in their appeal.
Among them, Ahmed, who claimed he had four children living in the UK, told the court he had £83,000 in the bank,
reported that all but two of the men who were part of the grooming gang have been released from prison.
Only Shabir Ahmed, 64, and Mohammed Sajid, 40, who were jailed for 22 years and 12 years respectively, remain behind bars.
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In total, police identified and interviewed 47 young girls who were potential victims of the gang, with the abuse lasting between 2008 and 2009.
The Times first revealed the issue of Asian sex gangs targeting girls after an investigation in Rotherham.
It led to an inquiry which found that at least 1,400 children had been exploited in that town.
A report by the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board painted a picture of girls as young as 10 being targeted for sexual abuse.
The girls were mainly white British and were targeted by the sex gang, who were predominately British Pakistani.
The victims were vulnerable teenagers from deprived backgrounds who were targeted in “honeypot locations” where youngsters would hang out.
They were bribed into keeping quiet about the abuse with alcohol, drugs, food, money and other gifts.
Many of the girls were physically assaulted and raped by up to five men at a time and were passed around friends or family of the abusers while being plied with booze and drugs.
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